Page 38 of Her Forbidden Highlander Husband

“What is it, Ev? I swear you’re thinking so loud it’s keeping me awake.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m sorry. This is all so new. Not new exactly, but different. The feelings that go along with being with someone the way we just were. Not that we were together, really in that way, but—”

“I know well what you mean. And lucky I do, for you’re going about the explanation horribly.”

She pinched his side and laughed when he yelped.

“If it makes you feel better,” he whispered. “It is new for me, too. Not being with a woman, though I will admit, I’ve never been with a woman like this. To see only to her pleasure. As a lad it had been more about me, I’m embarrassed to say. And I will apologize to the maids when I have the opportunity, for I see now how bad I was at it.”

“Perhaps it works best when you’re with a person you trust.”

“I think you have the right of it. Before, it was just physical. It felt nice, but there wasn’t anything else. Tonight, I cared only about you.”

“When you apologize to the maids, don’t mention how you might not have cared for them.”

“I’d guess they didn’t care about me, either. I think we got what we wanted. Like a temporary partnership. And then went our own way.”

She nodded. “Obviously, there was no pleasure in my past experience with the act. I never thought to want such a thing. But it’s not the same at all.”

“I think I understand. It’s like eating a warm tart straight from the ovens and eating a slimy snail. They’re both eating, but one brings joy and the other is disgusting.”

She smiled that he understood so clearly what she was trying to say. “Yes. Just so.” She blew out a slow breath and let the warmth of the moment comfort her. She’d never felt this way before. The throbbing in her core had settled, but she still felt the happiness of having Liam close.

“I’m sorry.” He held her tighter to him. “I’m glad I get to be the warm tart, but I also wish I could take your pain away.”

She nodded into the darkness. “You said that very thing when you were escorting me home and I broke down crying. Not the part about the tart, but how you wished you could take the pain away. You held me tight.”

“I hope I didn’t hurt ye.”

“No. Even as tightly as you held me, I worried I still might fall apart into dust. There was a time I wished for it.”

“What about now?” he asked, quietly.

“No. I have Gwennie now. And each new memory I make puts those other memories further out of reach. They still intrude from time to time, but not as much as when it was still fresh.”

She felt him nod. “Liam, I enjoyed what we did, but Gwennie is the most important thing to me. I can’t have her cast aside for a few moments of pleasure.”

Liam stroked her hair and kissed her temple. “I can’t be sure because I’ve never been a parent before, but I believe that is the reason Kenna and Lach, and Cam and Mari run off to their rooms in the middle of the day when the children are napping. You don’t have to choose just one thing. You can have everything, Ev.”

“Everything,” she repeated and thought she might be the luckiest woman in the world.

…

It wasn’t the first time Liam lay next to his wife with a raging discomfort between his legs. In fact, it had become a nightly experience since their first kiss, but this time he managed to push the discomfort aside to enjoy what had happened between them.

They’d taken another step closer to being truly married.

He woke in much the same fashion as he’d gone to sleep. With a relentless cockstand and nothing to do for it. Had he still been alone, he might have seen to matters himself. But now he had a woman and a child getting ready for the day around the room. He managed to get up and dressed. Perhaps he might delay breakfast for a dip in the cold loch.

After kissing Ev last night—or rather her kissing him—and what happened after, Liam was more than happy to have things moving in that direction, but he grew concerned that he might not do things to her liking and worried he’d not be given another chance if he failed.

The concern had grown through the day until, putting his pride aside, he found himself walking up to Cameron’s house that evening, hoping to ask for his assistance—knowing well the payment would be years of jests.

Still, he’d gladly pay if it meant taking care of his wife the way a husband ought. He rapped on the door twice and stepped away.

Mari opened it with a smile. “Liam, I’m so glad you’re here. Would you mind helping me in the kitchen?”

“Of course, my lady,” he said, earning a scowl.